Adjustable shoe heel



' Oct. 23, 1956 l. -STURMAN 2,767,489

ADJUSTABLE SHOE HEEL Filed March 18, 1955 IN V EN TOR:

HEEN T United States Patent O ADJUSTABLE SHOE HEEL Isidore Sturman, New York, N. Y.

Application March 18, 1953, Serial No. 343,172 1 Claim. (Cl. 36-34) My present invention relates to shoe heels and more particularly to heels having detachable parts for the purpose of varying the height of the heel.

It is an object of my invention to provide simple and easily operable means for eliecting the exchange of a heel part for either of the purposes mentioned above.

More particularly, it is an object of my invention to provide novel and improved means for varying the height of a ladies heel.

The above and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of certain embodiments, reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of part of a ladies shoe, showing a portion of the sole as well as an adjustable heel according to my invention;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l but showing the heel reduced in size by the replacement of a part;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view from above of the heel and part of the sole of the shoe of Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially on the line lV-IV of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing a modied form of heel according to my invention;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5, showing the heel thereof rearranged to a lesser height with the aid of a removable attachment;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view, similar to Fig. 4, of the heel of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a bottom view of the heel attachment as seen from the line VIII-VIII of Fig. 6; and

Fig. 9 is a bottom view of the heel as seen from the line IX-IX of Fig. 7, thus with the attachment removed.

Referring first to the embodiment yof Figs. 1-4, there is shown at 20 a ladys shoe having a sole 21, an upper heel portion or member 22 and a pair of heel members 23a, 23b of diierent height, adapted to be interchangeably secured to heel portion 22 as a lower extension thereof in the manner illustrated, respectively, in Figs. l and 2. The heel members 23a, 23b being structurally identical, except for their size, the construction thereof will be specically described with reference to member 23a shown in detail in Fig. 4.

The means for detachably securing the lower heel portion 23a (or 23b) to the upper heel portion 22 are shown in Fig. 4 to comprise an internally threaded socket member 24, secured against rotation by a hexagonal head 25 received in a similarly shaped recess 26 of portion 22 just underneath the sole plate 21, and a mating bolt 27 screwed into the heel portion 23a. Means are further provided for positively securing the two portions 22, 23a against relative rotation and thereby avoiding accidental detachment of the lower heel portion 23a from the shoe; they include a bracing mechanism comprising a cylindrical bore 28 in member 22, a similar bore 29 in member 23a aligned with bore 28 when the two heel members are in register, and a pin 30 slidable within the aligned bores and normally held by a spring 31 in a 2,767,489 Patented Det. 23, 1956 ice locking position, as illustrated in Fig. 4, in which the pin 30 engages both bores and thereby prevents any disalignment thereof. The bores 28 and 29 are accessible from without by way of respective slots 32, 33 accommodating a projecting finger 34 which is secured to the pin 30; upward movement of this finger against the force of spring 31, as indicated in dot-dash lines in Fig. 4, will entirely withdraw the pin 30 from the lower bore 29 and will cause it to be received by the upper, longer bore 28 containing the spring 31, whereby rotation of heel member 23a with respect to member 22 becomes possible. It will be appreciated that the top and bottom surfaces of the lower heel members 23a, 23b need not be parallel to each other but that they may be relatively inclined with a View to substantially aligning the tread portion 37a or 37b of the heel with that of the sole 21.

The embodiment of Figs. 5-9 features a ladies shoe having a sole 121, an upper heel portion 122 and a lower heel portion 123 secured to heel portion 122 and n av lower heel portion 123 secured to heel portion 122v by hinges 155. The heel of shoe 120 also comprises a removable attachment 156 of roughly elliptical conguration, as best seen in Fig. l0, adapted to be secured to the members 122 and 123 when the latter is tilted up alongside the former, around hinges 155, to occupy a substantially concealed position below sole plate 121 as shown in Fig. 6. It will be noted from a comparison of Figs. 5 and 6 that a heel constituted solely of members 122 and 123 in aligned position (Fig. 5) will be higher than one composed of members 122, 123 and 156 fitted together in the manner just described, this being due to the fact that the height of attachment 156 is less than that of lower heel portion 123. At the same time it Will be understood that the top and bottom surfaces of members 123 and/or 156 need not be parallel to each other and that the dividing surface between heel portions 122 and 123 (indicated at IX-IX in Fig. 7) may be somewhat inclined to the horizontal, with a view to insuring proper alignment between the tread surfaces of the heel and the sole'of shoe 120.

When the shoe 120 is to be worn with high heel, members 122 and 123 thereof are brought into the relatively aligned position of Fig. 5 and this alignment is maintained with the aid of a bracing mechanism similar to that used for preventing relative rotation between heel members 22 and 23a in the preceding embodiment. This mechanism comprises a pin 13) slidable in bores 128 and 129 provided, respectively, Within the heel members 122 and 123, these bores communicating with the outside by means of respective slots 132 and 133. A linger 134, projecting through these slots, enables upward displacement of pin 130 against the force of a compression spring 131 lodged within bore 128. When the heel is arranged in the manner shown in Fig. 5, the elements 130, 131, 134 occupy substantially the positions of their counterparts in Fig. 4; when the heel is to be rearranged to include the attachment 156, pin 130 is withdrawn into the upper bore 128 and the operating finger 134 projects into the slot 133 after heel portion 123 has been turned on its hinges, all as shown in Figs. 7 and 9.

A socket member 124 traverses heel portion 122 and has a hexagonal head 125 received in a similarly configured recess 126 immediately below sole 121. A similar socket member 157 is received in like manner in the heel portion 123, its head 158 being covered by a plate 159 serving as a tread surface for the high heel of Fig. 5. The socket members 124 and 157 are internally threaded to mate with countersunk screws 160 passing through the attachment 156; these screws are provided with hexagonal recesses 161 (Fig. 8) for engagement by an Allen-type setscrew key. A plate 162, provided with perforations 163 giving access to the recesses 161, serves as a tread 3, surface for the low heel of Fig. 6 and guards against loss of the screws 160 when the attachment is disengaged from the heel members 122, 123.

The invention, accordingly, is not limited to the speciic embodiments described and illustrated but may be realized in modied form without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

A heel comprising an upper heel portion and a lower heel portion, at least said upper portion having a breast provided with a vertical slot, said upper portion being provided with an upper vertical channel positioned close to said breast surface and communicating with said slot, said lower portion being provided with a lowerl vertical channel `aligned with said upper channel in a normal relative position of said portions, said lower portion having a liat top surface, said upper portion having a flat bottom surface coextensive with said top surface, a threaded bolt back ofsaid channels detachably joining said portions together, said lower portion being removable from said upper portion by rotation about said bolt, an element slidable in said channels between a locking position bridging said channels and a retracted position entirelyv within said upper channel, spring means above said element in said upper channel, said spring means tending to displace said element toward said locking position, andan extension on said element projecting outwardly through said slot, said extension enabling said element to be manually raised into said retracted position against the i force of said spring means preparatory to removal of said lower portion.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 176,488 Schwerdtfeger Apr. 25, 1876 306,905 De Clyne Oct. 2l, 1884 518,266 Morrison Apr. 17, 1894 965,415 Silverstein July 26, 1910 1,829,252 Zubia et al. Oct. 27, 1931 1,901,340 Taylor Mar. 14, 1933 2,252,404 Mauser Aug. 12, 1.941 t 2,421,792 Levine June 10, 1947 2,439,310 Mancuso Apr. 6, 1948 2,478,264 George et al. Aug. 9, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 465,968 Great Britain May 20, 1937' 

